Zeba Siddiqui

The charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) has launched a campaign to stop Pfizer from obtaining a patent on a highly effective pneumonia vaccine, a move which could denied most developing nations access to the drug.

Pneumonia is the biggest cause of death among children under the age of five in India Credit: AP

The charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) has launched a campaign to stop Pfizer from obtaining a patent on a highly effective pneumonia vaccine, a move which could denied most developing nations access to the drug.

The charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) has launched a campaign to stop Pfizer from obtaining a patent on a highly effective pneumonia vaccine, a move which could denied most developing nations access to the drug.

The US pharmaceutical giant has applied to an Indian court for a patent on ‘Prevnar 13’ – a powerful pneumonia vaccine – so that it can effectively shut down local firms from producing cheap copies of the drug .

Some of the world's poorest countries and medical charities such as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) depend on India's robust pharmaceutical industry to make cheaper forms of drugs and vaccines developed by big Western pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer.

“To make sure children everywhere can be protected from deadly pneumonia, other companies need to enter the market to supply this vaccine for a much lower price than what Pfizer charges," Manica Balasegaram, executive director of MSF's access campaign, said in a statement on Friday.

Prevnar 13 is the world's biggest-selling vaccine, and Pfizer earned $6 billion from its sales in 2015.

The US pharmaceutical firm made the vaccine available at discounted prices under the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) - an international public-private partnership to improve access to vaccines in the world's poorest countries.